Equal Pay and Work Rights

Equal Pay and Work Rights

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the employees’ rights at a bank in U.S. were respected and whether the employees were contented with their salaries. To gather the data, the research was conducted through a descriptive research where 20 employees from the bank were interviewed through questionnaires. Each questionnaire contained 10 major items mainly related to employees’ rights at their workplace, pay, and gender inequality. All the respondents, who comprised of 10 men and 10 women, completed their questionnaires and submitted them for the study. The data collected was analyzed through the application of interpretative techniques. The results obtained showed that there was some discrimination in terms of pay. In addition, there were several issues in gender inequality and workplace conditions. Recommendations were made for the bank to accommodate ‘equal pay for equal work’ principles and to treat all employees equally in regardless of gender. Additionally, the bank was advised to formulate a sexual harassment policy.

 

Introduction

Equal pay and work rights have been a main concern for human resources management in many organizations. Over the years, employees have advocated for their rights of getting paid in the rates that are comparable to their efforts in the performance of their jobs. Although most of the organizations understand the need to remunerate their employees as a motivation tool, very few have paid attention to the issue of equal pay for both men and women (Murphy 27).  As a result, many of these organizations continue applying gender discrimination by paying women less than men even when they perform similar tasks. In relation to this, there are some professions that have been preserved for men, especially the highly paying occupations. Consequently, women are left to do less paying tasks that are not technical. This is even experienced during recruitments where positions such as secretaries and bank tellers are given to women while men get most of the managerial positions. Such stereotypes have continued to affect the payment policy in most American banks where women are paid less than men even when they are in similar positions or are performing work of equal value.

Literature Review

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires employers to pay their employees equally for equal work done regardless of their gender. The Act was however passed as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act. While the Act protects both men and women from any act of gender discrimination, in pay rates, it also addresses the problem of sex discrimination in work places. Practically, this law is applied in most situations where women are paid less than men despite doing similar jobs. Since the law was enacted, it has contributed in narrowing the wage gap, although at a slow pace. For instance, in 1980 the weekly earnings for women in US banks were 64% of men’s but the figure had increased to 77% in 2008 (Repa 16). The main weakness for this Act is that it is applied when men and women are doing the same work. Since men are perceived to perform some types of work better than women, most managerial positions in banks and other institutions in United States are left for men. In reality, the Equal Pay Act has helped very few women as wage gap continues in banking sector.

Societal norms encourage men to devalue or value women even in United States where there are strict anti-discriminatory laws such as the Equal Pay Act. For example, in the banking industry, women may be subjected to discrimination by being denied promotions because they are pregnant or because they may become pregnant (Mills 49). At times, jobs may be offered to less qualified males leaving out the more qualified women. Judging women by how they dress is also common in workplaces. This may lead to gender discrimination where women are not promoted to some managerial positions in banks because they are not pretty enough or because they dress provocatively.

In 2010, the Wall Street bank, Goldman Sachs faced a sexual discrimination lawsuit from three former employees who claimed the firm was male dominated. In a case filed in New York’s federal court, the suit stated that Goldman’s portrayed discrimination to managers in assigning pay, promotions, and responsibilities. The suit claimed that Goldman employed more male managers than female and gave them unrestricted authority to assign responsibilities to their subordinates.  As a result, the male managers ended up assigning most lucrative positions to their male colleagues. In terms of gender representation in managerial positions, the suit pointed out that women comprised of 29% of its vice presidents, 17% of managing directors, 14% of partners, and only four members in a 30-person top management committee (Clark 2).

In terms of payment, one of the former female employees of the bank claimed that she earned an annual salary of $800,000 while a male counterpart earned twice as much for doing similar work. In addition, she mentioned situations where she was sexually harassed while at work. In another incident, she pointed out that the bank’s management had encouraged women to wear short black skirts with strapless tops which amounted to indecent exposure.

In another case about pay discrimination, Julie bower who was a former analyst at Schroder Securities bank had sued the bank for unlawful dismissal. She claimed that the bank forced her to resign due to sex discrimination that was common in the bank. Additionally, the bank had paid her a retirement bonus of £50,000 compared to £650,000 that was given to male analysts who retired (‘City Worker’ 5).  An employment tribunal ruled in favor of the plaintiff and ordered the bank to pay her a compensation of £1.4 million for the gender discrimination.

Even after the introduction of employment laws, the issue of equality in pay has not been easy to implement in US. This is mainly due to the fact that men and women perform different tasks that give rise to gender segregation in various occupations. When there are such segregations, the need to pay men and women on the same rates becomes impractical (Robertson 14). For this reason, women employed in management positions in the American banks are still discriminated by receiving salaries that are lower than the male employees working on same positions. This happens in many banks despite women portraying effective management skills when in leadership positions.

Methodology

For this study, a questionnaire was developed for data collection. The questionnaire in its final form consisted of two sections: the first part included questions on participant’s demographics while the second part consisted of several questions that required ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses. However, there were some questions that required participants to write short responses to describe their views on what was being asked. This approach was used because the research design for this study was descriptive. The study was conducted in a United States bank because employees could be accessed by the researcher and the human resource manager had requested for the study on equal pay and work rights. The study population consisted of employees from different departments of the bank. These departments included customer care, front office, accounting & finance, human resource, and IT.

Participation in the study was on voluntary basis. In addition, the respondents were informed of the research objectives, and that the data collected would be used only for the research purpose. It was emphasized that the findings from this research would benefit the bank employees by giving recommendations on the improvement of equal pay and rights to the human resource manager. A systematic random sample of 20 employees was selected from the bank with half of them being females.

Before filling up the questionnaires, a letter of introduction was given to each participant indicating the reasons for the study. In addition, participants were also assured of their confidentiality and that there was no risk for taking part in the research. Thereafter, the participants were taken through the questionnaires and briefed on how to respond to the questions. At the end, they signed the assent letter accepting to take part in the study and were given the questionnaires. All the questionnaires were completed and returned within three days, allowing sufficient responses for the analysis.

 

Results

When the participants were asked whether their current salary rates were fair, 75% of them thought their salary rates were not fair while 25% thought their salary rates were fair. Similarly, participants recorded such results when they were asked if their salaries represented the value of their input. 90% of the respondents said their salary did not represent the value of their input while 10% agreed their salary represented their input.

On the issue of pay scales in their bank, all the participants responded that the pay scales in the bank varied with gender where men were paid higher in various positions. In relation to this, the participants did not mention the specific situations when men were paid at higher rates than women. However, there were some notable differences on the issue of nepotism in their organization where 50% of the participants believed it was there while the rest had not experienced nepotism.

Only 40% of the participants had experienced sexual harassment while working at the bank but 90% of the participants thought there was gender discrimination in the bank. In addition, the participants gave their reasons for gender discrimination where 95% of the participants explained that senior jobs in the bank were held by men, 80% said women working in the bank were in junior positions, and all the participants mentioned that most men were in higher pay scale than women.

The participants gave various opinions about the differences in salaries for the employees in various pay scales where 60% of the respondents said the salaries were not based on performance, 70% said some bank employees were underpaid, and 90% said salary differences were the basis of inequality.

It was also evident from the results that the working conditions in their bank were not favorable as only 25% of the participants believed the working conditions were favorable. In general, 60% of the participants advised their bank to increase women’s salaries to men’s level and all the participants recommended harmonization for both men and women’s salary scales to avoid pay inequality.

Discussion

From the results, most of the employees believe their salary rates are not fair. In relation to this, most employees believe their salaries do not represent the value of their work input. All the employees agreed unanimously that the pay scales in their organization are different for men and women. However, employees were divided over the issue of nepotism in their organization where some believed men were favored to work in certain positions. Sexual harassment was another issue that was noted from the findings with 40 per cent of the respondents reporting to have experienced it.

Similarly, there was evidence of gender inequality as majority of the participants mentioned they had experienced it. Gender inequality in the bank is experienced when men take up management jobs, while women are mainly in junior positions. This sometimes affects the employees’ effort towards achieving their company’s objectives (Gary 25). In addition, men have higher salary scale than their female colleagues. When the participants were asked to state their opinions on the varying salaries paid to employees, most of them stated that the pay scales were not based on performance and hence were the cause of pay inequality. In another aspect, the working conditions at the bank were not favorable to the employees. Lastly, the results indicated employee’s position that pay inequality ought to be reduced by harmonizing the salary scales.

Recommendations

In order to address the issue of equality, the bank’s management should harmonize the salary scales. As they are, women feel discriminated because their salary rates are lower than men’s despite being exposed to the same working conditions. Likewise, the management should introduce performance contracts where people are paid according to the value of their work (Mata 36).

Furthermore, the social environment at the bank needs to be improved to satisfy the needs of the employees. This requires the management to investigate the problem of sexual harassment to both men and women (Donald 195). It is significant for the management to formulate a sexual harassment policy and to encourage all employees to be reporting sexual harassment incidences immediately. If all these issues are taken into consideration, the principle of equal pay and work right will be enhanced and employees will be motivated towards high productivity.

Conclusion

The problem with this law-based approach can be reflected on how gender-neutral laws may have different impacts on men and women depending on their interpretation.  For this reason, even if these laws are formulated to address individual rights, they are often perceived to be masculine to deny women their rights. In relation to the American banks, the male employees have more advantage than their female colleagues. In many cases, the salary scales show huge discrepancies with men being paid more than women at all levels of employment. There is continued male dominance for managerial positions in banks where they make decisions that favor other male employees. In the end, the rights-based approaches such as the Equal Pay Act, may fail to address the wage differences between jobs that are primarily performed by female workforce and those that are primarily undertaken by male workers in the American Banks.

 

Works Cited

‘City Worker’. £1.4m for a City worker in sex discrimination case. Retrieved from             http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-124022/1-4m-City-worker-sex-discrimination-     case.html on 5^th April, 2013.

Clark, Andrew. Goldman Sachs hit by lurid allegations of sex discrimination. Retrieved from             http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/15/goldman-sachs-allegations-sex-    discrimination on 5th April, 2013.

Donald, Elisburg. Equal pay in the United States: The Development and implementation of the    Equal Pay Act of 1963. Labor Law Journal, 29 (4), pg. 195.

Gary, Charness and Peter, Kuhn. Does Pay Inequality Affect Worker Effort? Experimental          Evidence. Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 25.4 (2007): 693-723.

Mata, Patrick. Equal Pay Just a Principle of the ILO? New York: BoD, 2009. Print.

Mills, Steves. Living and Working in America. Boston: How To Books, 2004.

Murphy, Evelyn. Getting Even: Why Women Don’t Get paid Like Men and What to Do About it.    New York: SimonSchuster, 2005. Print.

Repa, Barbara. Yours Rights in the Worlplace: An Employee’s Guide to Fair Treatment. New        York: Nolo, 2010. Print.

Robertson, Raymond. Globalization, wages, and the quality of jobs: five country studies. New     York: The World Bank, 2012. Print.

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